Australians are being cautioned against expecting an Indigenous Voice referendum result on the night it will be held.
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Sometime between October and December, the Australian Electoral Commission is holding the first national referendum in 24 years, the longest ever gap between referendums. The most likely date to hold a vote on whether Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be recognised in the constitution through a representative Voice to Parliament is mid-October.
The Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers has stated that no-one understands the hurry up on vote counting more than the commission.
![Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers. Photo: Sitthixay Ditthavong Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers. Photo: Sitthixay Ditthavong](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/128375134/6f1b3dca-2dc9-4d72-af11-b048462344c6.jpg/r0_269_5262_3239_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
He said Australians have embraced pre-poll voting or by post, with 55.1 per cent doing both at the last federal election which he describes as a "fundamental change".
As well, the referendum can only pass if there is a "double majority", that is a national majority in a majority of states.
"It takes time to do this highly complex event," he told reporters in Canberra.
"The most close it is, we will have to wait for 13 days after the event for postal votes to return. Referendums are no different."
"So it could well be that there is not a result, depending on how close that result is and how many people voted by post."
The count on the night, as is the norm, will be an indicative count from 8000 polling places and there will be a virtual tally room on the AEC's website.
Counted votes will be shown state-by-state and booth-by-booth, as well as the national tally. Voting will take place on Sunday as well as transporting votes to places on further counting, according to the AEC.
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It is crystal-ball gazing this far out from the vote how it will go, but Mr Rogers is tempering expectations.
"If people are starting to feel that level of expectation that there would definitely be a result on the night, I think there could well be disappointment for everyone," he said.
"No least that pressure on the AEC that becomes intense."
The commission embarked on a voter enrolment drive earlier this year and has, on Thursday, revealed the "unfettered success story" of 97.2 per cent voter enrolment of eligible Australians, including 84.5 per cent Indigenous enrolment.
It is expected there will be an update on the figures in July.
"The really pleasing thing is the number of people not on the roll has also decreased," Mr Rogers said.
In an increasingly heightened debate over the referendum, the commission is also charged with monitoring and engaging with the public over misinformation and disinformation over the referendum process. However, not the topic itself which is regarded as a matter for Parliament.
The commission is using, for its third ever time, a disinformation register to quash referendum falsehoods which may circulate on social media. It is also working with other agencies and the RMIT FactLab over disinformation and election security.
It will also send out pamphlets outlining the "yes" and "no" positions to 12.5 million households, but commission is not involved in the wording.
A parliamentary committee is examining the proposed wording to alter the constitution, which has been put forward as: "A proposed law: to alter the constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Do you approve this proposed alteration?"